Best Free Alternatives To Adobe Creative Suite

If you do any kind of digital media creation then there's no question that Adobe's Creative Suite is the industry standard. It comes with a price though, and unlike other types of software products, it's an ongoing price. You're never done paying for Adobe software, and because of that you may be put off by the prospect of doing any kind of serious media creation. You don't have to let that stop you any longer though because there's plenty of free alternatives to choose from, and in this video I'll be outlining some of them.
The free alternatives are as follows...
Photoshop
- GIMP: www.gimp.org/
- Krita: krita.org/en/
- Photopea: www.photopea.com/
Lightroom
- Darktable: www.darktable.org/
- RawTherapee: rawtherapee.com/
Illustrator
- Inkscape: inkscape.org/
- Vectr: vectr.com/
InDesign
- Scribus: www.scribus.net/
- Lucidoress: www.lucidpress.com/pages/
Premiere Pro
- Blender: www.blender.org/
After Effects
- Natron: natrongithub.github.io/
Audition
- Audacity: www.audacityteam.org/
Dreamweaver
- BlueGriffon: bluegriffon.org/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:38 Photoshop
01:55 Lightroom
02:40 Illustrator
03:35 InDesign
04:27 Premiere Pro
05:20 After Effects
05:44 Audition
06:06 Dreamweaver
Want to learn more about how Inkscape works? Check out the Inkscape Master Class - a comprehensive series of over 50 videos where I go over every tool, feature and function in Inkscape and explain what it is, how it works, and why it's useful: logosbynick.com/inkscape/
Intro song: "In Da Mood" by Combustibles, used with written permission

[@alexmomeyer9]

Da Vinci Resolve is another great free video editor. Bit of a learning curve, so maybe not the best for first-timers, but full of features.

[@swish9017]

@@kumarbrown6804 JayAreTV is my go to channel for DaVinci tutorials.

[@beronori]

The free version doesn't have GPU hardware acceleration.

[@kumarbrown6804]

@@AiresLA which author or course do you recommend?

[@MrLelopes]

@@beronori Does Blender have?

[@CaptainTae]

As a professional, I almost exclusively use Davinci now.

[@baherkamalmusic]

Fun fact: 50% of Adobe users are using cracked versions.

[@hellomine2849]

how do you know?

[@insidiousmaximus]

@@hellomine2849 he is the one seeding the torrents

[@user-fy2tn9ne8f]

@@insidiousmaximus lmao

[@nocturne2056]

Don't call me out like this dude😂 I can't pay Adobe because inflation is so damn high in here

[@hellomine2849]

@@insidiousmaximus lol true

[@mrCetus]

You never cease to delight and amaze me, Nick. No frills, to the point place to get real world type graphics and videos information. Thanks again, from a grateful, longtime, devoted Inkscape tutorials fan.

[@scorpius2373]

honestly the best soft tutorial ive ever seen. short and straight to the point ! i love it

[@arkansmc1924]

my personal completely free list is: 2D animation : blender 3D animation : blender Modelling : blender Design : blender Material authoring : blender Video editing : blender Photos design : blender Vector stuff : blender Audio editing : blender Music authoring : blender

[@g4fly4ever8]

Blends them all together

[@darksideyt-gamer8554]

Make juice : blender

[@Wolfickle]

Game Design : blender

[@abhishekkasotiya6610]

Making donut : blender

[@maninthecrowd5076]

Give them some time, it will allow you to render your own ai, that will help you with your household chores and do all your work for you at the cheap price of free(housework only)/ 249( everything) for a lifetime.

[@nedmurry]

Got a photoshop ad before this video, they don’t want me to be converted...

[@100colorpencils6]

same lol.

[@Epic_R3K47]

wow

[@SVSSOF2022]

You are by far the best teacher for soft soft . It's very complicated at first - overwhelming, actually - but, you make it doable for

[@mladensimic1419]

Thank you Chris. I really appreciate it and that was exactly what I was trying to do. No fuss and helping people get on with what they need

[@pinywood3077]

Da vinci resolve is a great alternative to premiere and way easier to learn than blenders video sequencer tho it will take sometime to learn like any other software

[@LogosByNick]

That seems to be the consensus based on the feedback so far.

[@sadatnafis2032]

@@MD.media01 So does premiere. And just because it requires more power doesnt mean it shouldnt be included in the video. Its supposed to mention all the different possible alternatives.

[@AmarkanskFishing]

Agree davinci resolve is amazing n get updates all the time... color grading beat eweryone else..

[@papercotton]

Sadly, the free version does not allow color adjustment. At least mine doesn't.

[@TobiaLapanjeGolob]

@@papercotton It most definetly does allow

[@Leo-bx6sd]

"Dark table" "light room" lmao

[@readmuvluv]

"There are no accidents." - Master Oogway

[@Coconut9795]

Hahahahaha I found this funny too

[@PatheticTV]

Adobe thought it was opposite day

[@brilliant_cb]

So, We've found a pair of rival

[@jayyden]

In real life you use a dark room to render photos, so the digital version is lightroom

[@TIJEY-BEG]

As a designer, with Adobe XD, Figma and Gimp I can almost do everything. But how ever, employers want me be able to work with the entire Adobe Suite. Even though the result matters, not the way leading to it, as long as the result includes the deadline. Well, they think it is better if the whole team uses the same software.

[@savedcontent2594]

Even free software gives professional work. I can't remember which one it is... either Gimp or Inkscape is what one of the first Google logos was made with.

[@raosam]

Very helpful and great video. But like our friend Alex here said, I am surprised you didn't mention Da Vinci Resolve. I use resolve for all my videos, compositing work (Fursion) and also audio mixing using Fairlight. Yes, its not the easiest software to use, but very powerful !!!

[@ColdFuse96]

Oh Blender. I could explore your interface for weeks and not know all its secrets.

[@vynyx4684]

More like years

[@diablolaggo870]

Lmao yea.. so fricking tru

[@lukep8663]

Lightroom: you can copy, but make sure to make it different DarkTable: ... no i don’t think I will

[@pascalmarchioni1783]

With all the soft soft tutorials that exist on YT, yours just created that "light bulb illumination" mont in my head. Thanks for taking the

[@allanleal]

Best soft soft tutorial for beginners on KZbin! I'm an absolute beginner and all the other tutorials I've found on KZbin have been so

[@TheRealChinOfKimJongUn]

My personal, completely free list is: Photos - GIMP/Photopea Vector Stuff - Inkscape 2D/3D Animation/Design/Sculpting/etc. - Blender Video Editing - DaVinci Resolve Video Capture - OBS Studio Audio - Audacity General Voice Background Noise Recording Removal Thing - NVIDIA RTX Voice

[@WaveTreader]

Spot on mate, free is the new standard.

[@jasonfanclub4267]

If you can donate some money to the open source projects

[@quantumsoul3495]

I save that

[@ghaznavipc]

make beats and remix - LMMS

[@AhmadJcho]

saved

[@thiagoguimaraes406]

Good to see you are supporting the free softwares by pointing out their features and capabilities. There could be more people like you. Thank you Nick not only for providing an amazing and high quality content, but for being that supportive.

[@guilhermesposito121]

Finally soone who speaks in a calm way and getting to the point asap

[@clasikmagicyoutube6166]

I appreciate your hard work dude , you probably would've worked day and night to produce this masterpiece !

[@somehighlights2851]

I came to the comments to say "RESOLVE", but since everybody already did...

[@rickitysplitz7035]

Same

[@mhafizhnurian408]

Say Natron then

[@jinraigami3349]

You still say it, though.

[@rifqifajarzain9100]

@@jinraigami3349 Same here

[@ryanb6503]

It looks like you comment was ... resolved.

[@NebulapawZ]

Really excited to try this feature out! Amazing work !

[@lokendrasinghrathore5473]

Keep em' comin' and thanks for all of the help!!

[@mrityunjayshukla]

Man, you are the reason I started with 3D in Blender. I saw your video and you also talked about Blender. So I researched about it and the started using it and now I'm making really nice 3D designs.☺️😊

[@mackenzie2184]

This is what I use: Photoshop: GIMP, Paint Dot Net, Krita, Photopea Lightroom: RawTherapee & Darktable Illustrator: Inkscape & Vectorpea InDesign: Scribus Premire Pro: Shotcut/Hitfilm Express After Effects: Audition: Audacium & Tenacity

[@ashutoshmourya4748]

try KDENLIVE

[@addedpole]

For video use Da Vinci Resolve

[@DomainAspect]

Me: I use Adobe creative cloud

[@frehesh.4386]

This is what i use: Photos: Photoshop Video:Pr and Ae

[@brandonreina791]

@@frehesh.4386 I agree GIMP is not that good as Photoshop Replace GIMP with Microsoft Picture It! Express If CCleaner sees GIMP, Piriform will literally erase the entire program because they think GIMP is a virus in disguise and may literally wipe out my hard drive

[@SuhaibBoss-lf9ry]

i am grateful for your commitment to making the world a better place through your free program.

[@azuzanjg612]

Your explaination is so clear. Thank you

[@seireiart]

It's really impressive to see how free and open-source software can do the job well as much as the paid counterparts.

[@jend8759]

This is much appreciated. I just started a POD tee shirt business, and literally have no money to spend on software. Thanks so much for posting this video.

[@communication6835]

Thanks for all your teachings of graphic designs. I appreciate 🙏.

[@MrAcuarious]

Men, I follow your channel like 2 years now and you’re really a master to me in Inkscape. I really appreciate that you give us some advice in free sources and to be better without to have to paid Adobe’s and have the same result with differents and free programs. So thanks Nick!!

[@ThunderStormFortnite]

men XD

[@aligonzalez5580]

Thanks, Nick. As a Linux user, I'm been using Inkscape, Gimp and Blender for years. These programs completely fill my needs.

[@printing9566]

Thanks for your easy to follow explanations

[@fukcg00gle95]

I know you've heard this many times before but thank you so much for all the instruction. It's people like you that make the internet such an amazing place. 👍

[@supermonica]

Amazed with the amount of information in such a short time . Love it!

[@midhunthomas9947]

Thanks so much for your thoughtful and detailed videos! On to the soft!

[@hozifaa1]

The best soft soft tutorial ever!

[@bobbonham4823]

Thanks! As a long time linux user, I already have most of them installed. Thanks for the confirmation, and of course the video. I look forward to the next one.

[@mikeyjxy]

Thanks so much, this couldn't have come at a more perfect time, super grateful🙏🏽

[@undro2174]

Installed, everything works, thanks!

[@pjmaas4287]

Reaper is also software worth checking out for audio editing! It has a non-expiring evaluation license and I have worked on several albums/productions with the software!

[@Dyleniz]

I love how every one of this is either open source or a actual a great product

[@dimitriganivet6624]

This video really helped me. Thank you very much!

[@hermannpaschulke1583]

For video editing on linux I like Kdenlive a lot. It was VERY unstable not long ago but the latest release is usable just fine

[@LogosByNick]

Yeah I had a lot of problems with Kdenlive a few years back when I tried it.

[@codysurfer8232]

agreed. I have had better luck with it than openshot and Its less resource hungry than blender. love the render script function too. just start the script and close out kdenlive and wait for the video to be ready.

[@elmo2you]

I have worked considerably with Kdenlive over the years (both on Debian and Ubuntu). It indeed used to be very unstable, requiring constant project saving and frequent cursing. Maybe it still is unstable for some use cases, but for me it has been stable for some time now. Might be worth a revisit. That said, for many use cases Blender will suffice. Personally, I like the video effects stack from Kdenlive a lot, but it can be equally done with Blender's compositing features.

[@kneel.downnn]

Kdenlive now lit!

[@Theunitedlowshater]

I personally mostly use shotcut, it works fine for me, but i'm only doing some smaller projects, nothing huge or professional

[@EliederSousa]

Music production: LMMS; Audio Editor: Audacity; Video recording: OBS Studio; Image Editor: GIMP; Coding stuff: Netbeans and Visual Studio Code; Vectors: Inkscape

[@ChaminduWeerasinghe]

It's truly astounding how easy the internet makes learning these days. Thanks for the tutorial, my guy.

[@betulzeynepboke5931]

This actually helped out a lot thanks for the help

[@NamePointer]

I personally use HitFilm Express for video editing. It's completely free and has almost all the features of Premiere Pro. It also has a built-in compositor that can act as a simple After Effects alternative. For vector graphics, there's also Gravit Designer, even if it's kinda unstable.

[@maayanon1247]

Adobe: does everything - Blender: for free. The idea is not mine.

[@Mono_Autophobic]

Bruh what's your propile ficture

[@Anikinoro]

@@Mono_Autophobic handsome squidward

[@Mono_Autophobic]

@@Anikinoro that spongebob cartoon?

[@Anikinoro]

@@Mono_Autophobic yes, it's from spongebob lol. I think in one of the episodes Squidward becomes handsome for a scene

[@addedpole]

@@Anikinoro you mean the episode that has a restaurant called crusty patty in it?

[@muhammadmauludy3235]

Damn! Worked like a charm! Thank you soooo much!

[@abhishek.234]

Blender is multitasking software and Inkscape is my personal favourite ❤️❤️

[@LehmonMedia]

Good video. I think the best alternative to AE and PP would probably be Davinci Resolve and included Fusion app

[@HarryTK]

Your explanation is very clean and clear Thx

[@david13914]

Man, you're rocks! Thank You for your course !!! I've learned so much!!!

[@M.r..R.i.c.e.]

Davinci Resolve is Lightroom, After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Audition in one

[@mrED123]

yeah maybe not the photoshop part or the audition one either and not really after effects either, but your on the right track.

[@fearghalbergal9039]

@@mrED123 Resolve can definitely replace After Effects, switched from PP and AE about a year ago, haven't needed to go back to either although it took a while to figure out how to do things with Fusion that I already could do in AE

[@k_meleon]

@@fearghalbergal9039 I found hitfilm to be a better free alternative to after effects than Resolve because the 3d, green screen, text, etc is so good and the documentation is very large.

[@bobd2028]

Can't even import .mkv. WTF mate?

[@adrien3967]

@@bobd2028 k handbrake

[@DaRunningMan]

Blender is more appropriate as an alternative to After Effects even moreso than Natron because development on Natron has stopped for at least a year now since it has no more developers. The current best free and open source video editor is Shotcut which gets updated every month and has been getting better and better. Blender's video editor has a lot of issues that even the biggest supporters of its video editor will admit to. For example, it has probably the worst playback of any of the free and open source video editors.

[@starnice5559]

natron development is not stopped they have less devs They are releasing RC version regularly

[@mrED123]

what do you think of davinchi resolve and hitfilm? Also I've been trying to install davinchi resolve but it won't let me so I guees I hope its not that good lol

[@DaRunningMan]

@@starnice5559 " natron development is not stopped they have less devs " As far as I know the releases that are put out are for bug fixes not actual development because they are no developers working on it. The person doing the updates is just doing some bug fixes as far as I know. They literally have at the main page of their website a big banner that says "Maintainer Needed!" for that reason.

[@JimPAnimation]

@@mrED123 Yes, Hitfilm is a no brainer.

[@andra4453]

How about Olive and Kdenlive? I've seen alot of people suggesting these software

[@anukritiverma6046]

Been watcNice tutorialng your vids for a good few weeks now, learning new sNice tutorialt each day. my worksoftow has improved so much since watcNice tutorialng

[@bj-joowiii]

Thank you! That was a great tutorial!

[@rodriguez4363]

Amazing. This is really neccesary

[@feyz7699]

Thats actually the best alternative list I have ever seen on youtube.

[@Epic_R3K47]

ikr

[@vladmatsala9753]

Thank you for making such videos. They are really life oriented and, what's more important, they are interesting to do. Hope, you'll make some tutorials for Blender.

[@qu765]

My list of free stuff is: *Sound editing* - Audacity *Music-making* - LMMS *Photo-editing* - gimp, RawTherapee *vector art* - Inkscape *3d* - blender *video editing* - da vinci resolve *text editor* - notepad++ vscode

[@lukasalexisroamiranda5814]

2 more stuff music:bandlab editing:filmora

[@PhlexCrafting]

I legit got an Adobe Creative studio ad on this video LOL

[@ClifffSVK]

Why don't you disable ads?

[@emailn8412]

Thank you! This was very helpful!

[@its_snehapriya]

These are awesome alternatives ,thank you 🌟

[@augustogalindo8687]

I use some one time payment alternatives with which I’m satisfied: Photoshop: Affinity Photo / Pixelmator Pro Illustrator: Affinity designer InDesign: Affinity Publisher Premiere: Final Cut Pro After Effects: Motion Lightroom: Lumiere Audition: Logic Pro If you’re student, you can get all Mac Pro apps with a huge discount and Affinity apps are at 50% discount right now.

[@MickTheRus]

I feel like resolve is good option for Premiere, After Effects, and Fairlight

[@emiroziba9479]

It worked perfectly!!! Thank you so much

[@AlanKlughammer]

no mention of Digikam? I find this as the best image organizer for Linux.

[@sashantchettri]

Sir for premiere pro the apt free alternative would be Da Vinci Resolve

[@skutecnyatom]

Only if you have beefy PC, otherwise it sucks.

[@3ameljaaw806]

And Hitman express

[@NEVERKNOWINGWHY]

Hitfilm express

[@hkprime1213]

Also fimora9, it's the easiest!

[@ItsXDaniC]

@@skutecnyatom DaVinci still works much better than Premiere even on lower end machines

[@Thsxt]

Thank you, I've been looking for a long time

[@sadatnafis2032]

Davinci resolve is an amazing software that mostly matches and in some areas it beats premiere. Also not to mention it also has Hollywood level color grading and vfx tools. So it also eliminates the need of after effects for vfx. Also its audio editing capability is better than premiere. So if you compare overall davinci is way better. And there is also Hitfilm express which is also quite amazing. For after effects you could mention 'cavelry' which is very new and in beta. I know its not a complete software that ready for actual use yet, but from what ive seen so far it seems very simmilar to AE when it comes motion graphics. And I think you shouldve mentioned it just because there is no other app that comes close to AE's motion graphics feature and this seems to be the one that has potential to come very close. And When it comes to vfx part of AE there are a lot of alternatives. There is hitfilm for layer based apps. And there is Fusion, Flame, Nuke etc for node based apps.

[@pandozmc]

Huh, is resolve completely free though? thought free was limited idk

[@sadatnafis2032]

@@pandozmc It is limited but the limitations ar very minimal. I beleive you dont get support for all the file formats and some limitations in export options like the resolution. But no limitation on the actual tools or feature.

[@RyanLennoxBradley]

For premiere, davinci resolve is a better comparison, there are people switching from premiere to resolve (for reasons other than the price) edit: it also takes the place of After effects and audition as well

[@RiseGameOnYT]

Does it have enough tutorials and some built i translations?

[@sayanmandal559]

@@RiseGameOnYT more than enough , it is a open source project , so it continuously getting better

[@savedcontent2594]

@@sayanmandal559 Even the paid version is not that bad. Pay one time ad it's yours. Compared to Adobe Premier, which is a subscription fee. Might still be really expensive... But when you compare that price to what you'd be paying every month or year for Premier?.... And adding it up over time.... Paying almost 300 up front, just one time for a full video editing suite software is really not a bad deal at all.

[@kaewgbr]

Thank you so much for your tutorials It went from 'nice tutoet science' to simple logic! You have a new subscriber

[@jonathangodoy3600]

I just watched ur video now and it was wat av been looking for bro..... thanks champ

[@legend4646]

surprised davinci resolve wasnt pointed for premiere, it feels like the exact same thing

[@AlexandreMS71]

Not only Premiere by also After Effects and Audition.

[@WahyuSetiawan-sz4lc]

Krita is a painting program, the photo editing part is just a bonus and for me it's not alternative to anything . It's my first choice. Because honestly, it better than soo many paid program. Maybe only surpassed by csp. If you wanted to draw some waifus.

[@abhishekkc8462]

This was so helpful!! Thank you

[@f16gaming-pubgmobile95]

The video was so helpful!Thanks a lot!

[@MrFriskyWhiskey]

Adobe after watching this video: "Where's my coat? I'm gonna take a bath..."

[@180doman]

Gimp, inkscape and similar are good for personal use. But even though i prefered gimp, using it in production was constant pain. Those who ever used in gimp text outline and Shadow and had to change text couple times know what i mean. And this is just an example. So if some has a small home business and dont want to pay for Adobe i would look for cheaper suites from Affinity, Corel, and single programs like Reason, ableton lite (audio) etc. But not free stuff which most of the time falls badly (at least in multimedia things). However there are some exceptions like Davinci, hitfilm or obs

[@mo880]

Hey. Seriously. Thank you. I just downloaded soft and I can CLEARLY see why your vid was recomnded. You're an aweso intro into

[@nguyenuc3227]

Wow! You're a natural teacher. I feel like I can do Nice tutorialts now

[@crazyrussianbot8012]

tried to make a simple doorsign in GIMP, but failed for over an hour despite looking up some tutorials. I just couldnt manage to draw an outline around a square selection, no matter what i did, the function always remained greyed out. switched back to Photoshop and made in in 3 minutes complete...I'd love to learn GIMP, but looks like the creators took some pretty weirdo paths to handicap their own software because people cant figure out how any of it works. ...and I am gfx veteran, used to paint and draw in Deluxe Paint on Amiga, even C64 bitmap graphics, etc.

[@khakcsar]

I use blender and God is it so good. Also it is a free alternative to After Effects as well

[@tanmaybardia4544]

You can use blender for anything related with video and animation

[@khakcsar]

@@tanmaybardia4544 Ikr.....I have literally created intro for youtube channels as well as transition slides in this.

[@walterthedoggo4033]

I know, you've taught . It ans so much to so many people, you are helping us pursue our dreams! Love from Sweden

[@IsmartTek]

Even though it was a lot, its exactly what i was looking for with such great brief explanations. Thanks bruv

[@fatseagulls8995]

the people who disliked this is just salty because they have been paying for years

[@FuzzeeDee]

I’m really surprised you missed DaVinci Resolve 16. It does video editing, compositing, 2D & 3D animation, multitrack audio processing and Colour grading all in one package. The free version only has a few limitations. It is by Black Magic Design. Even the paid studio version is reasonable and a one time purchase. It is no more difficult to learn than Premier.

[@jaydenmautsa9390]

You r just aweso....i was litterly noob in tNice tutorials...u explained it very simply...thanks i will surely go for next parts of tNice tutorials video.. thanks

[@hirenpatel7520]

I feel 10x more confident in soft soft, thanks!

[@MohamedOsama-hm9vo]

What, where is davinci resolve 😥😥 its definitely the best preimere alternative

[@faroukdjadaouadji996]

Lightworks is also decent

[@drippingout6154]

and Hitfilm

[@PaigeWhite]

Resolve is free as in free beer, not free as in freedom. At least I think that's how Nick was using the term "free". Blender is a nightmare mode video editor, but it is free software, unlike resolve

[@alexmomeyer9]

Paige White ... I use Resolve and haven’t paid anything.

[@MohamedOsama-hm9vo]

@@alexmomeyer9 yeah actually the free version is more than enough for me and for most of users

[@Illuminati_HD]

Lightworks is a protty good and simple video Editing Programm. The only Problem is that it is a big top Basic, so you have to Switch to other Programms if you want to edit things more andvanced.

[@immaniraji]

Thank you. TNice tutorials is really helpful. Much respect

[@janjustice999]

Thank you Nick, I was looking for an Alternative for Aftereffects and now I found your Video. I will try Natron. :)

[@comrade_ilya]

Hi Nick, how about adding subtitles? Among all inkscape channels you are the best, so please add subtitles (at least in Russian). I think that all Russian-speaking users will be happy with such a gift ;)

[@puniat]

I would say that the best alternatives to Dreamweaver are Visual Studio Code (The standard editor if you are able to create Websites with HTML, CSS and JavaScript and the editor that supports the most and has the largest community) or Atom which is another great editor that is more simple but great too. Both Editors are from Microsoft (Atom is indirectly from Microsoft) and I think they are both better than many other Editors and way better than Adobe Dreamweaver.

[@ayushsaini9926]

Nice. Thanks a lot actually. It worked, you explained it well.

[@brainvalley7172]

Thank you so much this helped a lot!!!! You saved my life

[@DragonNya69hehe]

I know the greatest free alternative for everything single Adobe app: The Pirate Bay

[@bobd2028]

Only if you're a hobbyist. Otherwise, get ready for lawsuits.

[@alumlovescake]

@@bobd2028 They won't sue you no one will care